Sunday, October 28, 2012

Sources report that SEIU-UHW and the “partnership unions"
have secretly inked a deal with Kaiser Permanente to lay off more than 1,000 workers
in California.

Tasty's sources provided a copy of an internal email that was sent last week by Kaiser's top executives to managers. The email announces plans for 550
layoffs in Southern California and apparently will be followed by a similar email to announce layoffs in Northern California.

The email -- dated October 23 and authored by Arlene
Peasnall (Senior VP of Human Resources) and Judy White (Chief Operating Officer
of the Southern California Permanente Medial Group) -- is entitled
"Workforce Reduction Announcement and Manager Communication Tools." It gives the following information to Kaiser’s managers (the complete email is
posted below):

As you are aware,
Kaiser Permanente Southern California has undertaken a series of cost-reduction
initiatives... Examples include operational efficiency changes and work
approaches to reduce medical center and administrative operating expenses…

These reductions will
be announced in two stages, with unrepresented employees being informed between
October 24 and 26, and represented employees scheduled to be notified within
the next few weeks… The estimated total number of affected employees is 550, of
which 466 are represented employees and 84 are unrepresented staff.

Attached are talking
points, FAQs and communications guidelines to help you honestly and accurately
discuss our workforce reduction actions and reasons behind them…

Please contact
your local Human Resource director or consultant if you have any questions or
need additional support.

Sources say that during the summer, SEIU-UHW and the “partnership unions" began secretly discussing the layoffs with Kaiser execs. In addition, they report that SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan voiced no opposition to the job cuts... even
though Kaiser has pocketed $7.4 billion in profits and has steadily signed up more and more members in California.

This report is corroborated by an internal email from
officials at UNAC, an affiliate of AFSCME that represents many of Kaiser's
registered nurses in Southern California. Ken Dietz, the president of UNAC, says that UNAC has been discussing the layoffs
with Kaiser since August.

Deitz tells UNAC’s members that he and others opposed
Kaiser’s layoffs and offered alternatives to the job cuts… but that Kaiser simply ignored them. Here’s an excerpt from Deitz’s email, which is dated October
26:

To UNAC/UHCP Health Care Professionals:

…Kaiser approached the Coalition of KP Unions in August to
discuss “affordability” issues. Kaiser’s definition of affordability is
different than the dictionary’s. Affordability to them does not mean they are
actually losing money; it does not mean they are not making money; it simply
means they are not making “enough” money.

We held multiple meetings using Interest Based Problem
Solving, where we generated a multitude of ideas for ways to save money. From
KP’s perspective, the ideas were not enough to “close the gap.”

Here’s the full email from UNAC. The email from Kaiser’s
execs is below:

Subject:Important Information from UNAC/UHCP President Ken Deitz

To UNAC/UHCP Health Care Professionals:

Upon my return from our 40th Anniversary
Convention, I was shocked at the number of calls and emails waiting for
me regarding “layoffs” at Kaiser. Let me take a moment to address some
of the rumors.

Kaiser approached the Coalition of KP
Unions in August to discuss “affordability” issues. Kaiser’s definition
of affordability is different than the dictionary’s. Affordability to
them does not mean they are actually losing money; it does not mean they
are not making money; it simply means they are not making “enough”
money.

We held multiple meetings using Interest
Based Problem Solving, where we generated a multitude of ideas for
ways to save money. From KP’s perspective, the ideas were not enough to
“close the gap.” An amazing statement given the fact that Bill Rouse
developed a plan for them to save hundreds of millions of dollars over a
3-5 year period. Since it was our plan, KP did what most employers do:
they tried to pick it apart. It became quite clear why they believed the
plan would not work:

1. The plan was our idea
2. The plan required critical thinking
3. The plan required work
4. The plan required a level of competency that management is not capable of

As of today, our union, UNAC/UHCP, has received no formal notice of layoffs affecting our members.

Nevertheless, due to email communication directed at managers, we have filed charges at the National Labor Relations Board for Kaiser’s direct dealing with the members and failure to bargain to impasse any changes.

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